Saturday, January 17, 2009

Update 9/3/10 - Just found out this placed 3rd for Scotch/Irish ales in the MoreBeer 6th Annual Forum Competition. Aging strong stuff is good. Update 4/21 - SG~1.045, racked back into a larger carboy, added two pounds corn sugar to thin it out a bit. It's active but slow now, I'll probably rack to keg in a few months.Update 2/28 - SG~1.046, even after the WLP001 addition. Racked to secondary...might add champagne yeast, but it might just be done.Update 1/31 - SG~1.051. Damn. This is too slow. Maybe some yeast nutrient is in order?Update 1/24 - SG~1.052, a little estery, still VERY sweet, obviously.--

I bought a sack of Scottish Golden Promise. Twenty-five kilograms of awesome. So I brewed a strong scotch ale to kick it off. I meant to use a pound of flaked barley, but the shop was out, so I planned to use oats, but then I forgot to put them in the mash. Oh well. A slightly finer crush and a little bit of water chemistry pushed my efficiency up to about 68-70%, which I think is pretty good for such a big beer. I used a little extract because my mash tun is not big enough for 25lbs of grain. Shooting for just the faintest touch of smoke - beechwood instead of peat. I can't stand peat smoke.

Additionally, at the suggestion of the folks at the club, I vented the barleywine and resealed to let some of the CO2 out.